Income Inequality and Partisan Voting in the United States n

Income Inequality and Partisan Voting in the United States n Andrew Gelman, Columbia University Lane Kenworthy, University of Arizona Yu-Sung Su, Columbia University and New York University Objectives. Income inequality in the United States has risen during the past several decades. Has this produced an increase in partisan voting differences between rich and poor? Methods. We examine trends from the 194s through the 2s in the country as a whole and in the states. Results. We find no clear relation between income inequality and class-based voting. Conclusions. Factors such as religion and education result in a less clear pattern of class-based voting than we might expect based on income inequality alone. The Republicans are traditionally the party of the business establishment, while the Democrats represent labor. Even to the extent the Democratic Party represents established interests for example, government employees, teachers, and others on the public payroll these groups tend to be lower income than comparable Republican-leaning business groups. As McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal (26) point out, economic inequality has implications for class-based voting. All else equal, the greater the inequality, the more the economic interests of the rich and poor should diverge, and the more one would expect to find such groups at home in opposing political parties. Recent decades have seen a striking rise in income inequality in the United States (Gottschalk and Danziger, 25; Piketty and Saez, 27; Mishel, Bernstein, and Shierholz, 29). Has this led to an increase in partisan voting differences between rich and poor? We offer no sweeping story here; instead, we share some statistical observations on inequality and voting over time in the country as a whole and in the states, revealing patterns that suggest complex connections between inequality, geography, and partisan voting in the United States. n Direct correspondence to Andrew Gelman, Department of Statistics and Department of Political Science, Columbia University hgelman@stat.columbia.edui. The authors will share all data and coding information with those wishing to replicate the study. The authors thank the U.S. National Science Foundation and Institute for Educational Sciences for partial support of this research. SOCIAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY, Volume 91, Number 5, December 21 r 21 by the Southwestern Social Science Association

124 Social Science Quarterly Do the Rich and the Poor Vote Differently? We begin with a key descriptive fact: there are sharp differences in partisan voting by income. In national elections, richer individuals are more likely to vote Republican. This difference has persisted with few exceptions since the New Deal era. This will come as a surprise to some, who observe the recent pattern of Republican presidential candidates faring best in poor states and infer that perhaps poor persons are now as or more likely than the rich to vote Republican. Gelman et al. (27, 29) resolve this apparent paradox. Using multilevel modeling to explore the patterns of income and voting within and between states, they find that different states show different patterns of partisan voting by income. In poor states such as Mississippi, richer people are much more likely than poor people to vote Republican, whereas in rich states such as Connecticut, there is very little difference in vote choice between the rich and the poor. This trend has gradually developed since the early 199s and has reached full flower in the elections of 2 and beyond. As a result, richer states now tend to favor the Democratic candidate, yet in the nation as a whole richer people remain more likely than poorer people to vote Republican. How much more likely? In presidential elections, the share voting Republican has tended to be 5 to 2 percentage points higher among voters in the upper third of the income distribution than among voters in the lower third. Figure 1 shows this rich-poor voting difference as estimated using national survey data for each presidential election from 194 to 24. It displays the share voting Republican among the top income third minus the share among the lower income third. In the 194s, the difference hovered around 2 percentage points. In the elections from 1952 through 1972, it shrank to around 5 percentage points. Since 1976, the difference has returned to nearly 2 percentage points. These trends over time have been similar throughout the country, although the absolute difference has been larger in the South than elsewhere (Appendix Figure A-1). This difference between rich and poor holds among voters of all races (Appendix Figure A-2). The same is true of most religious groups, though Jews and no religion are exceptions (Appendix Figure A-3). Much has been made of Barack Obama s recent success among highlyeducated voters, but as E. J. Dionne (25) has observed, the Democrats strength among well-educated voters is strongest among those with household incomes below $75, the incomes of teachers, social workers, nurses, and skilled technicians, not of Hollywood stars, bestselling authors, or television producers, let alone corporate executives. The rich-poor voting difference also holds in congressional elections, both in the South as well as in the rest of the country (Appendix Figure A-4).

Income Inequality and Partisan Voting in the United States 125 FIGURE 1 Republican Vote Share for President Among Voters in the Upper Third of Income, Minus Republican Vote Share Among Voters in the Lower Third Republican vote among upper income voters, minus Republican vote among lower income voters All voters Difference in Republican vote 4% 2% 194 196 198 2 SOURCE: Data for 194 and 1944 from Gallup Poll data compiled by Adam Berinsky and Tiffany Washburn; 1948 24 from National Election Study cumulative data file; 28 from Pew Research preelection polls. Income Inequality and the Rich-Poor Partisan Voting Gap Over Time The Country as a Whole Has the rise in income inequality over the past generation had an impact on income-based partisan voting? Let us first consider data for the country as a whole. Figure 2 shows two time trends for income inequality. The first chart uses data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) on the pretax incomes of families. Inequality is measured as the ratio of income at the 8th percentile of the distribution to income at the 2th percentile. These data are by far the most frequently referenced in analyses of inequality, and the 8/2 ratio is a reasonably common measure (see, e.g., Bartels, 28). Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez have analyzed tax records to generate an alternative estimate of income inequality. They calculate the share of total pretax income going to the top 1 percent of taxpaying units. These data are shown in the second chart in Figure 2. Both measures suggest that income inequality was lower in the 195s, 196s, and early 197s than it had been in the late 194s. The CPS data on family incomes begin in 1947, so they offer no insight into prior levels. The Piketty-Saez data suggest that the decline in inequality was quite sharp. The high level of income inequality in the early 194s was not, according to

126 Social Science Quarterly FIGURE 2 Income Inequality, 194 to 24 P8/P2 Income Ratio 4 P8/P2 ratio 3 2 1 194 196 198 2 5 Income Share of the Top 1% Top 1%'s share of income (%) 25 194 196 198 2 NOTE: The first chart uses Census Bureau data, from the Current Population Survey (CPS) (Census Bureau, 28). Inequality is measured as the ratio of family income at the 8th percentile of the distribution to income at the 2th percentile. This time series begins in 1947. The second chart uses tax data, analyzed by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez (28). Inequality is measured as the share of income going to the top 1 percent of taxpaying units. Both charts use pretax income. these data, a temporary fluke; inequality had been high since the 192s (not shown here). Both data series also indicate a sharp increase in income inequality beginning in the 197s or 198s. The CPS data suggest that the rise started at

Income Inequality and Partisan Voting in the United States 127 some point in the 197s, while the Piketty-Saez data suggest it began in the early 198s. For the nation as a whole, then, there is broad similarity between the trends in income inequality and the rich-poor gap in partisan voting. Each declined after the 194s and then rose beginning in the 197s or 198s. The simple correlation between inequality and the rich-poor vote gap is.5 using the CPS inequality data and.4 using the Piketty-Saez inequality data. Patterns Within States It would be injudicious to draw an inference about causality from the national correlation over time. Many things were distinct about the 195s, 196s, and early 197s: rapid economic growth coupled with modest levels of unemployment and inflation, steadily rising wages and living standards in the lower half of the income distribution, a tacit accord between large firms and labor unions, a renewed sense of national unity following the end of the Depression and the victory in World War II, and others. Any or all of these may have contributed to both declining income inequality and a reduction in the partisan voting gap between high- and low-income voters. Variation across the states offers added analytical leverage. The states vary widely in the degree to which income inequality has changed over time. Using the CPS data (the Piketty-Saez tax data are not available for individual states), we can calculate an 8/2 ratio for each state in each year beginning in 1963. Over the ensuing four decades, inequality declined or held steady in some states, increased moderately in others, and rose substantially in others. Have these varying inequality trajectories produced corresponding trends in income-based partisan voting? To find out, we need state-level data on the difference in Republican voting between high- and low-income voters. For the 2 and 24 elections, the sample sizes for individual states in the National Annenberg Election Survey are large enough to generate reliable estimates. Before 2, the best available data are from the National Election Studies (NES), and for most states the sample sizes are too small to learn much for individual elections. We therefore pool the data across multiple election years. We use three periods: 1952 to 1972, 1976 to 1996, and 2 to 24. The first of these, 1952 1972, is characterized by comparatively low income inequality. The latter two periods feature higher inequality. We separate 1976 1996 from 2 24 because of the differing data sources. We further pool the states into three groups according to their pattern of change over time in income inequality. One group (21 states) experienced a decline or no change in inequality between the 1952 1972 period and subsequent years. The second group (17 states) experienced a moderate rise in inequality. In the third group (11 states) inequality rose sharply. We generate an estimate of the income-based voting gap in each of these three groups in the presidential elections in each of the three periods. Figure 3

128 Social Science Quarterly FIGURE 3 Income-Based Partisanship (Difference in Republican Vote Share, Comparing People in the Upper and Lower Third of Incomes), Plotted Against Within-State Income Inequality (Ratio of 8th to 2th Percentiles of Family Income), for Three Time Periods States in which income inequality was flat or declining States in which income inequality increased moderately Difference in Republican vote 1% 2-4 1976-96 1952-72 1952-72 1976-96 2-4 2.2 3. 2.2 3. Income inequality (p8/p2) States in which income inequality increased sharply 1976-96 1952-72 2-4 2.2 3. NOTE: The three graphs pool data from states in which income inequality was flat or declined, increased moderately, or increased sharply. Within each graph, the three periods represent the postwar boom (1952 1972), the subsequent period of stagnation (1976 1996), and the first elections of the 21st century (2 24). There is no clear relation between income partisan polarization and within-state income inequality. StatesinGroup1:AL,AR,GA,IA,KY,LA,MN,MS,MO,NE,NM,NC,ND,OK,SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WI, WV. States in Group 2: DE, FL, HI, IN, KS, ME, MD, MI, MT, NV, NH, OH, OR, PA, TX, UT, WY. StatesinGroup3:AZ,CA,CO,CT,ID,IL,MA,NJ,NY,RI,WA.

Income Inequality and Partisan Voting in the United States 129 plots the pattern of income inequality and income-based voting for each of the three groups of states. These three charts are inconsistent with the hypothesis that income inequality is a key determinant of the rich-poor partisan voting gap. During the first time period, from 1952 to 1972, the voting gap was relatively small in all three groups of states, ranging from zero to about 5 percentage points. Despite sharply differing trends in income inequality across the three groups, the voting gap then jumped to around 15 percentage points in the 1976 1996 period in each of the three. In the first group, income inequality fell slightly on average; in the second, it rose modestly; in the third, it increased sharply. However, each group of states experienced a similar rise in the rich-poor partisan vote gap. Developments between 1976 1996 and 2 24 data further contradict the hypothesis, as the group with the largest rise in income inequality (Group 3) experienced the largest decrease in the rich-poor voting gap. Variation Between States Historically, inequality in the United States has had a significant geographical component; in addition to inequality between households within states, there is considerable inequality between states. Consider Connecticut and Mississippi, a relatively rich state and a relatively poor one. In 1965, the household income at the 8th percentile of Connecticut s income distribution was approximately $3, (in 24 dollars). The income level at Connecticut s 2th percentile was $15,. In Mississippi, the income at the 8th percentile in that year was only $16,. In other words, a lowincome household in Connecticut had virtually the same income as a relatively high-income household in Mississippi. If people evaluate their incomes using a nationwide frame of reference, many people in Connecticut in 1965 may have thought of themselves as high-income, while a large share of Mississippi s population may have perceived themselves as low-income. If so, and if income inequality affects partisan voting differences between the rich and the poor, we would expect a high degree of income inequality among the states to result in a large gap between rich states and poor states in partisan voting. The larger the gap in average income across states, the more likely rich states should be to vote Republican and the less likely poor states should be to do so. Inequality between states in average income has decreased over the past half-century, as Figure 4 shows. The relative positions of states have not changed much; states that were poorer in the 194s, such as Mississippi, tend to remain at the low end. However, from 194 to around 198, average income grew faster in poorer states, so the degree of between-state inequality fell. Since 198, the gap has held constant. Appendix Figure A-5 offers another way to see this.

121 Social Science Quarterly FIGURE 4 Average Income by State (Adjusted for Inflation) Over Most of the Past Century $3 Trends in absolute income Connecticut Ohio Mississippi Income in 2 dollars $1 $3 194 196 198 2 NOTE: Each line on the graph shows a different state. The relative positions of the states have changed little. Incomes grew faster in poorer states from 194 to around 198. Since then the gap has held steady. Given these trends, we might expect a reduction in between-state differences in partisan voting in the period leading up to 198 and then little or no change after 198. In fact, as Gelman et al. (27, 29) document, this is not at all what happened. There was little systematic pattern prior to 199. Then, beginning in the 199s, we observe rich states moving steadily away from the Republicans. As noted earlier, Gelman et al. find that this latter trend is mainly a product of upper-income voters in rich states shifting from Republican to Democratic. Figure 5 shows the difference in Republican voting, comparing people in rich and poor states, from the 195s through the present decade. Before the 199s, rich and poor states had very little difference, on average, in their political complexions, but the past two decades have witnessed a divergence, with the largest changes occurring among voters in the upper third of the income distribution. This is also true if the analysis is restricted to white voters (Appendix Figure A-6). This is even more surprising for a material self-interest perspective on voting because high-income voters in rich states have enjoyed particularly rapid income gains during the past two decades. Figure 6 shows trends in real incomes at the 9th and 1th percentiles in each state. The states are ordered from richest to poorest. Not only are the 9th percentile incomes in rich states higher than those of their counterparts in poor states, but they have grown very rapidly in recent years. Yet these people have increasingly voted Democratic. Abramowitz and Teixeira (28) have written of the rise of a mass upper middle class, and this is what we are seeing in Figure 5. Whether you call it red and blue America, or soccer moms versus SUV dads, it is a geographic com-

Income Inequality and Partisan Voting in the United States 1211 Democrats Win Rich States and Republicans Win Poor States, But it Was Not Always that Way Rich state, poor state gap in Republican vote among poor, middle income, and rich voters Republican vote in poor states, minus Republican vote in rich states 2% 1% % 1952 1968 FIGURE 5 1972 1988 ponent to the culture war that was not occurring in the days of Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon, or even in the era of Phyllis Schlafly and Ronald Reagan. The United States Compared to Other Countries High income voters Middle income voters Low income voters 1992 24 NOTE: The voting gap between rich and poor states has opened up among rich voters but much less so among the poor, even when looking only at whites. SOURCE: Gelman et al. (29). Using international survey data, Huber and Stanig (27) find that income predicts conservative voting more strongly in the United States than in most European countries a surprise to those of us weaned on the musings of Sombart (196), Hartz (1955), and others about why the class war did not survive the Atlantic crossing. Huber and Stanig attribute cross-national differences in voting to cross-national differences in policy: on issues of income redistribution, the Democratic and Republican parties actually stand pretty far apart in comparison to the left-right differences in Europe. Theshortversionofthisargumentisthat, in Europe, economic policy is off the table. The European welfare state is too expensive to expand and too popular to disband (see also Pierson, 1996). Left and right in Europe are thus reduced to fighting over postmaterialist issues in the sense of Inglehart (1971). These battles are commonly also about economics most notably in debates about the extent to which immigrants can and should integrate with the majority in each country but they do not lead to the same sort of incomebased voting cleavages we see in the United States. In a cross-national analysis, Kenworthy and McCall (28) find no relation between changes in market inequality and changes in the generosity of redistribution programs.

1212 Social Science Quarterly FIGURE 6 Forty-Year Trends in Incomes of 9th and 1th Percentiles Within Each State NOTE: The graphs are on a common logarithmic scale running from $2, to $125, in inflation-adjusted dollars, with states ordered from richest to poorest. Incomes at the 9th percentile in richer states not only are higher than in poorer ones, but they have been growing quite rapidly in recent decades. We see an intriguing connection between these international comparisons and the variation between states in U.S. politics. When it comes to income and voting, the richer states of the Northeast and the West Coast but not those in the southern and central heartland look more like Europe, with rich and poor voting similarly and Democratic and Republican voters separating themselves more on social than on economic issues.

Income Inequality and Partisan Voting in the United States 1213 Discussion Higher-income Americans are more likely than low-income Americans to vote Republican. This gap about 15 percentage points in recent years is no surprise: these groups have differing economic interests, and the two major parties really do stand for different economic policies. The rise in income inequality in recent decades has heightened this gap in economic interests. In addition, the Democratic and Republican parties have moved farther apart on economic issues during this period (McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal, 26). One other piece of information to throw into the mix is that economics is paramount to voters. For example, in August 28 a month before the financial meltdown 49 percent said that economic issues such as job creation, gas prices, and the mortgage crisis should be the highest priority of government. An additional 14 percent cited healthcare, which also manifests economic concerns. Only 37 percent cited noneconomic issues, such as Iraq, terrorism, and immigration (NBC/Wall Street Journal, 28). Rich and poor are more separated economically than they used to be, the two parties are more separated on economic policy than ever before, and economics remains voters #1 issue. So why do we find so little evidence of a link between income inequality and class-based voting? One explanation for why inequality does not predict voting more strongly is tied into economic inequality itself: the argument is that the rich now have enough resources to tilt the political discourse in their direction and to even change the rules of the game (through campaign contributions and other forms of economic influence) in their favor. This explanation has been explored quantitatively by Ferguson (1995), McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal (26), and Bartels (28), and more anecdotally by Frank (24). Krugman (27) and Galbraith (28) come to similar conclusions when considering the impact of inequality from an economic perspective. On the other hand, the victories of congressional Democrats in 26 and Barack Obama in 28 have reduced the appeal of arguments that the system is rigged against liberals. Even before these potentially transformative elections, Fiorina, Abrams, and Pope (25) argued that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans represent the center of political gravity in the United States, a point given further support by Bafumi and Herron (27), who estimate the ideological position of voters and congressmembers on a common scale and find the vast majority of voters to fall between the centers of the two parties congressional delegations. Income predicts vote choice about as well now as it did 3 years ago, but with a new geographic pattern. In poor states, income is associated with Republican voting much more than before, while in many rich states, the relation between income and vote choice is nearly zero. One key difference between red and blue America is in the relation between income and social attitudes. In Republican states, rich and poor have similar views on social

1214 Social Science Quarterly issues, but in Democratic states, the rich are quite a bit more socially liberal than the poor. Factors such as religion and education result in a less clear pattern of class-based voting than we might expect based on income inequality alone. Appendix FIGURE A-1 Republican Vote Share for President Among Voters in the Upper Third of Income, Minus Republican Vote Share Among Voters in the Lower Third, Looking Separately at Southern and Nonsouthern States Republican vote among upper income voters, minus Republican vote among lower income voters Southern states Difference in Republican vote 4% 2% 194 196 198 2 Republican vote among upper income voters, minus Republican vote among lower income voters Difference in Republican vote 4% 2% Nonsouthern states 194 196 198 2 NOTE: For 1948 we had no survey data with both state and income.

Income Inequality and Partisan Voting in the United States 1215 FIGURE A-2 John McCain s Share of the Two-Party Vote by Income, Among Different Ethnic Groups, as Estimated from a Model Fit to Pew Research Center Polls Conducted During the Campaign 1% Whites Blacks McCain vote share 5% 1% Hispanics Other McCain vote share 5% poor mid rich poor mid rich NOTE: The income categories correspond to family income below $2,, $2, $4,, $4, $75,, $75, $15,, and above $15,. We saw similar patterns in 2 and 24 exit polls. The area of each circle is proportional to the number of voters in the category.

1216 Social Science Quarterly FIGURE A-3 John McCain s Share of the Two-Party Vote by Income, Among Different Religious Groups, as Estimated from Pew Research Center Polls Conducted During the Campaign 1% Protestant (not born again) Born again Protestant Catholic McCain vote share 5% McCain vote share 1% 5% Mormon Jewish Other religion poor mid rich poor mid rich McCain vote share 1% 5% No religion poor mid rich NOTE: For the largest religious groups, higher-income voters were more likely to vote Republican. We saw similar patterns in 2 and 24. The area of each circle is proportional to the number of voters in the category. Due to sample size limitations, it is difficult to draw strong conclusions about the smaller religious categories.

Income Inequality and Partisan Voting in the United States 1217 FIGURE A-4 Republican Vote Share for the House of Representatives Among Voters in the Upper Third of Income, Minus Republican Vote Share Among Voters in the Lower Third, Displayed for Each Election from 1952 to 26 U.S. House: Republican vote among rich voters minus Republican vote among poor voters Difference in Republican vote 4% 2% All states Southern states Nonsouthern states 196 198 2 196 198 2 196 198 2 NOTE: The pattern is very similar to the trend from 1952 onward in presidential elections, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. FIGURE A-5 Trends in Relative State Incomes Trends in relative income Average income in each state, divided by the U.S. average income 1.5 1..5 Connecticut Ohio Mississippi 194 196 198 2 NOTE: The gap between rich and poor states narrowed until about 198 but has remained steady or widened since then. (The state whose per-capita income jumped so high in the 197s is Alaska.)

1218 Social Science Quarterly Republican vote in poor states, minus Republican vote in rich states Whites only: Rich state, poor state gap in Republican vote among poor, middle income, and rich voters 2% 1% % FIGURE A-6 The Voting Gap Between Rich and Poor States Has Opened Up Among Rich Voters, But Much Less So Among the Poor, Even When Looking Only at Whites High income white voters Middle income white voters Low income white voters 1952 1968 SOURCE: Gelman et al. (29). 1972 1988 1992 24 REFERENCES Abramowitz Alan, and Ruy Teixeira. 28. The Decline of the White Working Class and the Rise of a Mass Upper-Middle Class. Pp. 19 46 in Ruy Teixeira, ed., Red, Blue, and Purple America: The Future of Election Demographics. Washington, DC: Brookings Press. Bafumi, Joseph, and Michael C. Herron. 27. Preference Aggregation, Representation, and Elected American Political Institutions. Department of Political Science, Dartmouth College. Available at hhttp://www.dartmouth.edu/herron/repinstitutions.pdfi. Bartels, Larry M. 28. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. New York: Princeton University Press. Census Bureau. 28. Median Income for 4-Person Families, by State. Available at hhttp:// www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/4person.htmli. Dionne, E. J. Jr. 25. Polarized by God: American Politics and the Religion Divide. In Pietro S. Nivola and David W. Brady, eds., Red and Blue Nation? Characteristics and Causes of America s Polarized Politics. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Ferguson, Thomas. 1995. Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Fiorina, Morris P., Samuel J. Abrams, and Jeremy Pope. 25. Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America. New York: Pearson Longman. Frank, Thomas. 24. What s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. New York: Metropolitan Book. Galbraith, James K. 28. The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. New York: Free Press.

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